Suffolk County Council selects Centralis for desktop transformation
Centralis transforms Council’s vision into a deliverable strategy
London, 8 January 2012 – Centralis, the independent application and desktop delivery consultancy, has completed the first phase of a Citrix-based desktop transformation programme to an initial 1,200 users at Suffolk County Council. Designed by Centralis and delivered in partnership with Customer Service Direct (CSD), the programme is part of the Council’s wider strategy to realise significant savings, maintain the integrity of its services and enable much wider collaboration across all Suffolk public sector organisations.
Suffolk County Council is one of the UK’s most forward-thinking local authorities and is at the forefront of transforming delivery of public services. Aiming to become a consumer rather than a provider of IT, the Council’s desktop transformation programme will enable it to support mobile and flexible working practices, provide secure remote access to external public sector systems and capitalise on the cost and flexibility benefits of the cloud. Centralis was selected as its strategic partner following a formal bid process based on its blend of transformation and technology consultancy skills.
“We needed a partner that would help realise both our short-term tactical goals and long-term strategic requirements,” states Mark Adams-Wright, Chief Information Officer (CIO) at Suffolk County Council. “Centralis’ approach of strategy first, technology second is focused on ensuring that IT initiatives are closely aligned to the organisations goals so it instantly appealed. The recommendations I received from colleagues at other public sector organisations based on their experience of working with Centralis confirmed that they were the right partner for meeting our tactical requirement while keeping our strategic journey going at the same time.”
Using its established methodology, Centralis conducted a thorough infrastructure assessment, encompassing discovery, sizing and application profiling to enable the development of a robust and detailed infrastructure design. This was followed by testing with a pilot group before deployment to the first 1,200 users. Ultimately, the goal of providing users with ‘a single pane of glass’ will be achieved through Citrix Cloud Gateway. Day-to-day management of the infrastructure is taken care of by the team at CSD, with Centralis providing technical support.
”Our strategic consultative methodology captured and clarified the Council’s goals and enabled us to define their specific functional, technological and user requirements,” says Nigel Cottam, account director at Centralis. “We then created a clear desktop strategy and technology roadmap ensuring that all future IT initiatives are closely aligned to the Council’s short- and long-term goals.”
The result is a desktop transformation that’s realising multiple benefits for the Council. “We now have people working in a far more productive, critical and simple way than they were before,” confirms Mark Adams-Wright. “I don’t necessarily look at how desktop virtualisation is going to save me money. What I look at is how it enables all the technologies and practices that are going to save an awful lot of money. It’s a building block for the future.”
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About Centralis
Centralis is one of the UK’s leading independent IT consultancies, specialising in delivering applications securely to their point of use. Formed in 1996, Centralis’ mission is to help customers reduce cost and improve business agility through innovative, award-winning solutions backed by top-level partnership with industry leading vendors, including Citrix, Microsoft and VMware. Centralis provides consultancy, support, managed services and resale of selected products. Strong technical skills and commitment to delivering on time and to budget has led to long-term business partnerships with many customers across the private and public sectors, including Standard Life, Centrica, BUPA and many NHS Trusts and Universities. Centralis remains independent and wholly owned by employee shareholders. For further information go to www.centralis.co.uk. Follow Centralis on Twitter at www.twitter.com/Centralis_UK.
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